'I wasn't ready to give up': How five riders bounced back from serious setbacks

Cycling goes wrong sometimes, it’s a fact of life. Be it injury, illness or error, the important thing is how you respond and move on. Dr Josephine Perry speaks to riders who’ve bounced back from serious setback

Allen and Harvey's RAAM bid/Chris Froome (Twitter)

Setbacks suck. And setbacks are common. In a recent CW Twitter poll of 644 cyclists, nearly half said they’d had at least one setback necessitating a week or more off the bike in the past year; a quarter had had more than three such forced lay-offs.

As much as we like to take pride in our resilience, the proliferation of pinned collarbone x-rays on Instagram suggests that we don’t always bounce quite as well as we’d like. The passion we feel for our riding means that, when something goes wrong, we tend to be hit hard, both physically and mentally.

Thank you for reading 20 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1